NEWS ROUNDUP

New effort underway to protect spotted owl An owl that lives in old-growth forests in Inland mountains and the Sierra Nevadas is facing increasing threats that could lead to its demise, environmental groups alleged. The groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild, on Wednesday filed a second petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, seeking protection for the California spotted owl on the federal endangered species list. The petition is in addition to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the agency after it rejected the first petition....
The blighted oak For nearly a decade, scientists have been watching oaks die in Northern California's coastal forests. In some years, the blight that is killing them spreads slowly, giving scientists hope that they might figure out ways to control it before it spirals totally out of control. But in other years, it has spread much more quickly until, by now, its impact is readily apparent even to the casual observer. The cause is a disease called sudden oak death, which started cropping up in 1995 and has since killed tens of thousands of trees. And that's just the beginning: More trees are dying each month....
ATV Industry Supports U.S. Forest Service Proposal to Limit Off-Highway Vehicle Travel The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) supports limiting off-highway vehicle (OHV) travel to designated routes on United States Forest Service-managed land, as provided for in the Forest Service's proposed rule regarding OHV management. According to SVIA President Tim Buche, "The ATV industry shares the Forest Service's desire to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of our nation's forests for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The proper management of OHV recreational areas can help meet this objective and provide appropriate off-road riding opportunities for the over 16 million all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders in the United States."....
Aphids Causing Aspens To Turn Early More moisture and warm weather have promoted population surges in aphids that eat the leaves of cottonwoods, aspens and box elders, experts said. Stressed by aphids and spider mites, the leaves of the deciduous trees are turning brown and dropping weeks before normal. Most of the impact is visible in urban settings where trees are under constant stress....
Agency moves to remove protection of murrelet Going against a recommendation from its own scientists, the Bush administration took another step toward removing the marbled murrelet from the threatened species list, which could ultimately increase logging in old-growth forests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided yesterday that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California, although they continue to decline in population, should not be considered for protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and Alaska....
Legal Agreement sets Timeline to Protect Seven Imperiled Swallowtail Butterflies The Center for Biological Diversity and the Xerces Society yesterday reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on a timeline to protect seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Specifically, the FWS has agreed to make a final decision as to whether or not these butterflies warrant threatened or endangered status under the ESA. The FWS must make this ruling by November 30, 2004. On January 10, 1994, the FWS received a petition to list seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species as threatened or endangered under the ESA....
Timber Rattlers Take Over Town Residents of one town are on the lookout for some unwanted neighbors: more than a dozen timber rattlesnakes. Animal control workers have wrangled over a dozen timber rattlesnakes around homes in the town of Ringwood, N.J. But officials said there is only so much residents can do -- the reptiles are protected under state law as an endangered species. Residents have been adivised to stay away from the snakes and call for help....
Elk to be killed to control growth of herd Federal wildlife officials have approved a plan to kill as many as 60 elk to control the burgeoning population in a protected area near the Hanford nuclear reservation. Initially, five cow elk would be shot by state or federal wildlife agents within the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Over time, the plan would cull about 10 percent of the Rattlesnake Mountain elk herd that has grown to 600....
Yellowstone leads parks in ranger attacks 2003 was a rough year for law enforcement rangers at Yellowstone National Park. They were shoved, hit, grabbed and threatened with a gun, a knife and even a wooden shelf. For the 103 law enforcement rangers in Yellowstone last year, there were 32 reports of threats and assaults, by far more than at any other national park in the United States, according to 2003 figures. Twenty of those incidents were threats - instances in which rangers believed an assailant would carry out harm - and the rest were assaults....
Federal help sought on air pollution Two conservation groups on Wednesday urged the U.S. Interior Department to take immediate action to protect Rocky Mountain National Park from air pollution drifting into the mountains from urban areas to the east. Environmental Defense and Colorado Trout Unlimited filed an administrative petition with Interior Secretary Gale Norton's office and with Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker. The 47-page document asks the Interior Department to declare that the park is being harmed by air pollution, to establish caps on pollution levels in the park, and to push state and federal regulatory agencies to fix the problem....
BLM divvies up desert playground The Bureau of Land Management recently released a final management and recreation plan for 72,235 acres of desert lands north of Fruita. The amended plan gives mountain bikers 5,298 acres of cheatgrass-tufted rolling hills and rocky ledges to call their own. Motorized visitors have a designated 435-acre area for zipping around off trails. About 65 miles of existing user-created trails will be closed and 8.5 miles of new biking trails will be created....
Energy Industry, the Party Animals Corporate invitation-only parties have become a staple of political conventions. And one big player serving as party host this year in Boston, where the Democrats gathered last month, and in New York, where the Republicans are meeting, is the energy industry. The party for Barton was paid for by the Edison Electric Institute, the American Gas Assn., the National Mining Assn. and the Nuclear Energy Institute. In the presidential race, energy campaign dollars have gone overwhelmingly to President Bush. But the money spent on corporate parties at conventions is unregulated and its use more nuanced....
Groups look to stop drilling A coalition of conservation groups filed suit Wednesday to stop drilling in the Desolation Flats area of Adobe Town while the merits of a larger case are being decided. The request for a "stay" was filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. "We'd like them to cease and desist with the bulldozing until the court can decide whether the project is even valid," Erik Molvar with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said....
BLM may try horse birth control There are nearly 200 wild horses in the Antelope Hills/Cyclone Rim herd south of Lander. The problem is there are only supposed to be from 60 to 80 horses. So federal land managers plan to use roundups and a fertility control program to significantly reduce wild horse numbers in the southwestern Wyoming herd later this fall....
BLM spikes big coal sale More than $100 million that would have flowed to the state's School Capital Construction Account will not flow there now, because the federal government thinks the state is entitled to more. That's one consequence of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision this week to reject the $237.5 million bid of BTU Western Resources Inc., for about 324.6 million tons of coal. The company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp., was the sole bidder at a BLM auction Tuesday for the North Antelope Rochelle North tract, which the company had nominated for a lease auction....
County's drilling review limited Pitkin County government is accustomed to flexing its muscles on land-use issues but it's uncertain if there is much to flex when it comes to regulating the natural gas industry. County officials are assessing this week how much regulatory power they have over gas well drilling in the extreme western part of the county - where exploration is looming. The county has some review powers on "off-site impacts" such as air quality, water quality, noise and effects on roads - but how much is open to debate. The state government, through the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, exercises most of the review power and claims it as its exclusive domain....
Bunkhouse to hit the Bradenton trail A one-of-a-kind cowboy bunkhouse dating from 1915 is being moved to Bradenton, preserving a piece of ranching history. George Harrison, former owner of Harrison Ranch, said the bunkhouse was a place cowboys could rest their heads when it got late or a place for them to get an early start the next day. In 1915, Wildes and Furman Harrison constructed a small bunkhouse that could sleep about five or six. The bunkhouse was used until the 1950s....
A Historical Perspective of the Western Trail The image of a dusty cowhand trailing a giant herd of longhorns across an unspoiled plain, looking to the far horizon and dreaming of the whisky and girls at the end of the trail is one which pervades our collective image of Texas and the West. In reality it was a hard dangerous trek and one that was abandoned as soon as a reasonable option was available. The era of the cattle drive lasted only as long as it took for the rail lines to reach south into Texas and find their way ever westward into cow country. Yet the audacious nature of the enterprise is a iconic legend that speaks of a undaunted people carving out a new nation and doing what they had to in order to make it work, it is this image that I suspect has branded itself into our psyche and thus has enshrined the “cattle drive” as a symbol of the American West....